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Enlarge ImageRequest to buy this photoJennifer Smith Richards | DispatchInterim Columbus school Superintendent Dan Good, far left, visits Fairmoor Elementary as part of his tour of the district’s 115 schools. He plans to hit all of them by next week.

Dan Good ducked into the classroom, reached for the woman’s hand, shook it and introduced
himself.

“Oh, I’m not a teacher. I’m a grandmother,” said the woman whom Good — Columbus City Schools’
interim superintendent — had found in a Fairmoor Elementary classroom.

He didn’t miss a beat before responding, with a smile: “We’re all teachers.”

By the time he is done, Good will have extended a handshake to just about every employee in the
district. He’ll have visited every school. He said doing so became a priority as he stepped into
his new role in part because he likely doesn’t have the luxury of time: This job is his for a year,
so getting to know the schools and people in the state’s largest district has to be more sprint
than stroll.

He started the job on July 1. The district has 115 school buildings. He had visited 77 as of
last Friday and planned to complete his rounds next week. There are more than 7,000 employees. It’s
easy to see that his informal handshake tour has been a whirlwind.

At Fairmoor, he spent just a few seconds zipping into each classroom, warmly greeting teachers
and aides and, often, saying a few words to students.

“Look how smart you look!” he said to one group. He often explains to some kids that, no, he’s
not the president, but he is in charge of snow days. He poses for a classroom photo with some
third-graders.

Before he left the building — and he’d been there less than 30 minutes — he looked around.

“We didn’t see the cooks,” he said to his executive assistant, who accompanies him on each
visit. She was former Superintendent Gene Harris’ executive assistant, too. They went to the
cafeteria, shook hands, made small talk. Good held a baby someone had brought in.

At the next school, Broadleigh Elementary, Good ran across teachers who live in Westerville; he
knew them as parents in his former role as Westerville superintendent. He remembered one of the
food-service workers from a meeting earlier in the school year. He tracked down the custodian out
on the playground, where she was blowing away leaves, and hugged her.

No one’s a stranger; he remembers faces he has seen before.

Good goes to many of the schools unannounced, then zips through in a flurry of handshakes and
grins. Employees seem to appreciate his informal nature, off-the-cuff jokes and easy demeanor. They
tell him they’re glad he’s here in the district.

He does not stop to watch lessons or examine schoolwork taped in the hallways. Nonetheless, he
sizes up each school and notes the highlights: Dingy building, cheery atmosphere, engaged kids,
too-strict rules.

Now he has work to do. He’s trying to persuade voters to pass a big levy, and he’s working to
turn around a district where only a handful of schools are considered high-performing.